Top Five Underrated COG Games — 2022

You may choose THREE options.

  • A Squire’s Tale
  • An Odyssey: Echoes of War
  • Asteroid Run
  • Broadway: 1849
  • Chronicon Apocalyptica
  • Cliffhanger: Challenger of Tomorrow
  • Death Collector
  • Demon Mark: A Russian Saga
  • Drag Star
  • For Rent: Haunted House
  • Fielder’s Choice
  • Gilded Rails
  • Grand Academy II: Attack of the Sequel
  • In the Service of Mrs. Claus
  • Kidnapped! A Royal Birthday
  • Light Years Apart
  • Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents
  • NOLA is Burning
  • Pugmire: Treasure of the Sea Dogs
  • Ratings War
  • Sixth Grade Detective
  • T-Rex Time Machine
  • The Daring Mermaid Expedition
  • The Luminous Underground
  • The ORPHEUS Ruse
  • The Superlatives: Shattered World
  • To the City of the Clouds
  • Treasure Seekers of Lady Luck
  • Trials of the Thief-Taker
  • Undercover Agent
  • Weyrwood
  • Wraiths of SENTINEL
  • Yeti’s Parole Officer

0 voters

14 Likes

I always feel a little sad about these lists because I invariably go “I love this, how is it underrated?” but I hope it gives the games a bit of a profile boost and puts them more on people’s radar!

23 Likes

Mainly here to say how much I love Asteroid Run, even though I wish it wasn’t considered underrated. :smiling_face_with_tear:

14 Likes

I like these polls cause you can discover new games and sometimes the opinions of the people who played them. On the other hand, I agree with the fact that it’s a bit sad to see some games you like be considered “underrated”.

9 Likes

If anyone hasn’t tried Sixth Grade Detective, I highly recommend it. It’s a really simple story where each chapter has a relatively mundane mystery that a kid in middle school would think is a big deal. Sounds boring, but the structure is top notch, the mysteries themselves aren’t too difficult, and the naive innocence that thinks that a lost bike is a huge deal really makes you feel like a kid again. If you have any children of your own, this is a great one to play with them or have them read themselves.

32 Likes

For rent was the first COG game I ever played. I haven’t read it in years, but I’m glad I read it when I did. It introduced me to this whole thing that I love

10 Likes

I’m still hoping Cliffhanger and Superlatives get sequels. They were both excellent.

8 Likes

Oh man, I really love Odyssey: Echoes of War. One of my top CoGs, period, I’d say.

7 Likes

I think Shattered Worlds would have been better recieved if it didn’t have the option to play the previous MC. The new stuff is actually quite well done, but then you have things like the event with your RO from last game, and they all have basically identical dialogue despite them all being very different people.

My understanding is that it got quickly retooled due to fan demand, which is unfortunate, because I think the people demanding it would probably have ultimately appreciated it more if they didn’t get what they wanted.

13 Likes

if you haven’t read sixth grade detective I hope you will at some point it’s a really cute story that makes you feel like a kid again.

4 Likes

Death Collector. The premise is that you collect the tongues of the dead to document their stories, working for a corrupt government. It captures the “cog in a machine” atmosphere very well. Lovely writing, vivid setting, and distinct, satisfying characters. You can choose different goals to pursue with the same RO, which offers some good variety. There’s a fair bit of depth to the game that you don’t encounter on a single playthrough – or even several playthroughs – so doing a code-dive might be worthwhile to see the possibilities. Also, it’s free!

It’s quite subtle in giving hints, and stat requirements can be hard to fulfil. And sadly, though the ROs are very distinct from the onset, some scenes with different ROs are copy-pastes.

Ultimately, it’s a brilliant read with good execution. I’ve played it at least 8 times now.

I plan to play it at least 8 more.

5 Likes

My big problem with Death Collector is that there is a big variety if you persue the “evil” plotline, but if you don’t everything else kind of runs together (particularly the ROs, which, as you mentioned, have a lot of copy-paste content, but also what happens after you solve the mysteries).

It feels like a book that has a ton of effort put into a path that probably a minority of players see, at the expense of the main route.

3 Likes

It’s definitely good marketing for authors who maybe didn’t get a lot of attention when they’re stories came out! I’m glad they do this list – sometimes I miss buying a game because I wasn’t comfortable spending the money at the time it came out, and then it gets a little lost amongst all the other games.

1 Like

I’m shocked to see Nikola Tesla on this one since that one shouldn’t be underrated considering how well written it was and the fleshed out characters.

Also voted for Fielder’s Choice which I realize isn’t everyone’s cup of tea since there’s a dice roll system in there but sport games are severely in need of more materials in CoG and HG.

2 Likes

I was surprised to see Nikola Tesla on there since it’s been out only eight months, and I didn’t think a game qualified as “underrated” unless it had been out for over a year. (Ditto for Super Star Soccer Striker on the HG list, although at least that’s been out eleven months, so maybe close enough?)

I voted for Cliffhanger-challenger of tomorrow, The Daring Mermaid Expedition and Broadway:1849 anc can heavily recommend all three. Cliffhanger for its great world building, a badass MC that you can customise in so many different and interesting ways and sheer sense of fun; The Daring Mermaid Expedition for its cast of fun and quirky characters and its entertaining and twisty plot that is full of surprises and where you can get a lot of different endings depending on the choices you make, Broadway both for the fun in playing a theatre director and choosing the reportoire of your theatre and building up its reputation and for giving us an interesting glimpse into that period in time.

I can understand The Daring Mermaid Expedition being on this list, given that it’s free to read/play, which means that fewer people will buy it than what is the case for most other COGs. But I have a bit harder time understanding why Broadway:1849 isn’t more popular and don’t really understand why Cliffhanger: challenger of tomorrow, isn’t more popular. I mean it’s got a MC who, though maybe not quite a superhero, is at least superhero-adjacent and AFAICT, the superhero genre is the second most popular genre for COG and HG readers/players. There are also lots of options to customise your MC, which is also quite popular and for all of those readers/players who want a really powerful MC, here they have one handed to them on a silver platter. Yes, the romances aren’t that fleshed out, but there other COGs like, say Witchcraft:U, where the romances aren’t any more fleshed out, but which still aren’t on this list. But then again, life is full of mysteries.

1 Like

I was definitely surprised Superlatives was on the list considering how well-written it is